


Little Changes

by possiblyobsessed



Series: MCU Ships Oneshots [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bisexual Steve Rogers, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-17 00:55:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16964700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possiblyobsessed/pseuds/possiblyobsessed
Summary: Steve and Bucky have been friends there whole lives and their relationship has never really changed that much. When they’re both alive and well in modern times Steve finally has the time to notice the little changes that come about in their relationship after he takes the serum. Because things are a little different now that he’s taller and stronger.





	Little Changes

Their whole lives Steve had been the smaller one. Not to mention the frail, sickly one. But that wasn’t important, because Bucky was neither frail nor sickly now. Bucky was now the smaller one, however.

At first it hadn’t been important. They’d been fighting a war. Steve didn’t have the time to notice the everyday things. He didn’t have time to notice the little things that changed in their relationship. Then, he had thought Bucky dead and he had been frozen for almost seventy years. So there was no noticing changes then.

Now they were both alive and well and reunited. Now there was finally time for Steve to notice the changes. He wondered if Bucky noticed them to. He hoped it didn’t make Bucky feel useless, not like he had in their youth. He hopes Bucky knows he’s not useless. He hopes the little changes don’t upset his best friend, because he’s always had a feeling Bucky didn’t want him to take the serum. That Bucky wished he hadn’t become Captain America.

Sometimes he lets himself imagine what would have happened if he didn’t become a super soldier. He never would have met Peggy, and he knows things would have been different if Bucky had been around when he met her, but he can’t deny that he was in love with Peggy. He never would have fought in the war, he would have stayed home - waiting for Bucky, who was the only important person in his life. Would Bucky have survived the war? Bucky never would have gotten involved with Hydra, he never would have been a Screaming Commando (there never would have been any Screaming Commandos) and he never would have fallen off that train. But that didn’t just guarantee Bucky’s survival, even if he didn’t have to deal with Hydra, he would still have to deal with Nazi’s, he would still be under constant fire on the battlefront. Or, he may not have ever made it out of the Hydra base he was being tested in. Bucky might have died a hamster in lab experiments if Steve hadn’t become Captain America. Even if Bucky had made it home, Steve himself probably would have died of illness at a young age without the serum.

And so he thinks, as terrible as parts of it have been, his glad he became Captain America and he’s glad things went the way they did. Because at least now he and Bucky are both safe, they are both healthy and they are both happy as is possible when you lead the life they do. And their relationship is perfect, almost.

Despite this he wonders if Bucky feels useless every time Steve doesn’t have to ask him to grab items off the higher shelves. Does Bucky watch him easily reach up and grab whatever tin of food or whatever piece of clothing he wants and remember times when he couldn’t do it? When he had to say “Hey Buck, come grab this for me, I can’t reach it.” Okay, so he never said it exactly like that and Bucky never grabbed anything for him without making a joking comment about his height, but there was always a twinkle in Bucky’s eyes when he reached over Steve and passed down whatever the item was. Sometimes Steve misses it, often Steve wonders if Bucky notices the little change.

When they were younger, Steve used to wear Bucky’s old clothes. If a shirt or a pair of pants didn’t fit Bucky anymore it became a hand-me-down. Bucky decided whether it went to Steve or one of his younger siblings and Steve probably got more than his fair share of Bucky’s old clothes. Sure, sometimes Steve had to roll them up or pull them tighter than they were supposed to go, but they were always cosy. Nowadays, Steve and Bucky wore clothes that were practically the same size and they swapped clothes freely and frequently. Sometimes Steve still goes to knot up his shirt, before remembering its unneeded. Steve no longer has to wear layers of Bucky’s clothes before they even begin to look like they fit, but at least he can now admire how Bucky looks in his clothes. It’s a little change, but Steve picks up on it.

Sometimes, Steve will be sitting there, or maybe he’ll pass the Med Bay at the Compound and he’ll remember days when he laid in bed sick and Bucky acted like his own personal doctor. When he laid under piles of threadbare blankets Bucky would do everything he could remember seeing Steve’s mother do. He would take Steve’s temperature and he would force Steve to eat and drink. Bucky was always absolutely opposed to Steve getting out of bed on days when he was sick and would even cook and do his chores for him those days. Both boys knew that Steve would return the favour should it be needed, but Bucky only ever seemed to be sick once a blue moon. Now that they’re both genetically enhanced super soldiers, neither of them get all that sick. No one ever has to take care of anyone. Part of Steve misses seeing Bucky so gentle in those moments. It’s a little change, a silly thing to notice considering Steve doesn’t particularly want to get sick again.

Steve can remember when every penny that made its way into one of their pockets and didn’t need to be used would be put into their shared savings jar. As small as the jar was, it was never full. Despite this, both boys had always dreamed that the small fund would get them to Europe one day. Neither of them were desperate for money anymore, they lived comfortably and even had more efficient methods of travel, and its nice. Maybe he can’t directly attribute that to the serum, but he knows without it he probably would have lived in a tiny rundown apartment his whole life. He doubts Bucky would have wanted to go to Europe anymore after the war, but he thinks this is the little change his most grateful for.

There’s so many more little changes he notices. Steve could go on rants about how he doesn’t have to ask Bucky to open jars for him anymore and how he doesn’t have to stand on his tip toes when they hug. He can tell you about how when they went on a double date they both actually had girls interested in them for once (sure neither man enjoyed the date, but it was a change). He could make sure you knew all about how Bucky no longer had to intervene in every fight Steve joined or how Bucky no longer carried around a spare inhaler at all times. He would always feel a bit weird when he didn’t have to curl into the oddest shapes to hide his sketchbook from his curious friend, because now his shoulders were broad enough to hide the book from the view of anyone behind him. Like every other thing, their just little changes that no one else would be bothered to notice. But maybe Steve is just slightly paranoid that he has ruined his relationship with his oldest companion.

But, Bucky has his own ways of showing that he is happy with how things are. That he doesn’t feel useless and that maybe he is also glad with how things have turned out. And when Bucky kisses Steve for the first time one New Years, well that’s the big change in their relationship. It made it true that everything about it was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope everyone enjoyed this! I’m not really used to writing relationships, but this idea has been floating in my head for ages, so I had to write it out.


End file.
